The Final Girl, Misogyny and the Slasher Film… _ Harpymarx

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Harpymarx Personal is the Political

The Final Girl, misogyny and the slasher film… November 2, 2008 by harpymarx &bout these ads $h1p233en.wordpress.com3about4these4ads3% $h1p233en.wordpress.com3about4these4ads3%

It all originates from a fixed point in horror history. That fixed point is Psycho. Young trangressive sexually active woman, Marion, steals from her boss and her fate is sealed when she holes up in the Bates motel. er sister, !ila, !ila, doggedly tries to find find her with the help of Marion"s boyfriend, boyfriend, #am !oomis $a very popular surname in horror%. &nd the end climax between between them and 'orman Bates. The reason I mention (sycho is because I watched the film alloween the other wee) and it made me Chainsaws; the chapter Her thin) of *arol *lover"s +inal irl analysis $from the boo), Men, Women and Chainsaws; Body, Himsel!" *lover loo)s at how -slasher films have been big business at the box o/ce and she wonders why0 #he $%es&ion, &hen, has &o do wi&h &ha& par&ic%lar a%dience's s&a(e in &ha& par&ic%lar ni)h&mare; wi&h wha& in &he s&ory is cr%cial eno%)h &o warran& &he price o admission, and wha& implica&ions are &here or &he c%rren& disc%ssion o women and *lm" 1 f9

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The Final Girl, misogyny and the slasher film… | Harpymarx

https://harpymarx.wordpress.com/2008/11/02/the-final-girl-misogyny-...

*lover wrote her boo) during the late 56s and early 76s where the nadir of -slasher films had been reached from Blac( Chris&mas, Halloween, #exas Chainsaw, Ni)h&mare on +lm &ree&" &nd during the "76s , cream trilogy $though there are aspects of tongue firmly in chee) and a parody of the -slasher% and earlier, ilence o &he -ambs $8778%" The horror film reinvents itself li)e other genres and there"s 9uidity and slippage between these genres $I would also include haunted house in space, .lien!" The )iller in a slasher film is a man, with li1le of a bac)4story but the viewer is allowed to glimpse bare remnants of who he is. 'orman Bates with his mother fixation, and Michael Myers stabs his sister after she"s had sex. #ex and death with a +reudian twist. The +inal irl is usually the last woman standing. & woman who is resourceful, intelligent and feisty. #he has witnessed her peers $male and female% being )illed and she will be in the final confrontation with the )iller. But rarely sexual and rarely sexually active. The +inal irl also brings into view the virgin3whore dichotomy. The sexually active women die and die, on camera, in the most violently gratuitous fashion possible $Blac) *hristmas, alloween, 'ightmare on :lm #treet;.%. The +inal irl sometimes has an androgynous name such as !aurie $alloween%, #ydney $#cream%, e where :. &nn ?aplan argues &ha& men )a3e a& women, who become ob4ec&s o &he )a3e; &he spec&a&or, in &%rn, is made &o iden&iy wi&h &his male )a3e, and &o ob4ec&iy &he woman on screen; and &he camera's ori)inal 5)a3e' comes in&o play in &he very ac& o *lmin)"
@hile *lover sees the shortcomings of this analysis when considering the politics of slasher films where women are degraded and obAectified yet on a contradictory level, it is a woman who comes through and beats the faceless -bogeyman. #he argues that in terms of gender representation it is positive for women even pu1ing aside the problematics of the theory. My own feelings towards *lover is that she has developed a competent theory about the women representation in slasher films, shifts in identification and understanding masculinity. *lover exclusively analyses &merican horror $h1p233www.horschamp.c.ca3newCoDscreen3finalCgirl.html%. I believe there is an over emphasis on +reudian and psychoanalytical understanding of 2 f9

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feminine3masculine. There lac)s a political and materialist understanding of why slasher films became popular during the mid E6s. Fne argument is that art imitated life with the new phenomenon of the -serial )iller stal)ing suburbs and generating fear $from #on of #am to Ted Bundy% and media coverage. #erial )illers who are anonymous, a modern bogeyman whose victims are usually women. & new style of pared down horror film was created with a woman as the hero. But nothing really new there as you can point bac) to Psycho $87G6%. I would also argue that even though it is fiction there is a negative emphasis on mental distress, from 'orman Bates to Michael Myers $who escaped from a psychiatric hospital% the central notion that the protagonist is not Aust -mad, bad and very dangerous to )now but also something of the supernatural, something marginal, inadeuate and other. #omething that is a1ac)ing the core values of a small town. But is this the best women can hope for0 Is *lover excusing misogyny0 *ountless of these films prescribe to the dominant ideology and power relationships, along with conventional gender roles $which *lover )inda ignores%. But contradictions come into play where it is a woman who fights the baddie and wins whether it"s a mas)ed Michael Myers. Fr, % there were male cheers in the audience when misogynist #tuntman Mi)e got his comeuppance by three women. But again, these films are from a male standpoint and interpretation. Though are they any worse or be1er than the Jchic) 9ic)" film, which, if I am honest annoy me a lot more than, say, the rindhouse double4feature0 &t least with the +inal irl, for all its contradictions, faults, tensions and problems, she shows herself to be resourceful and powerful. There are issues of fantasy and reality. That"s why I thin) it is much more complicated regarding identification. @e live in a world saturated by sexist imagery existing in a dominant patriarchal and capitalist society based on commodification. &nd partly on a cynical level, what brings in the punters and how it relates to their lives but not that challenging rather it is in the acceptable boundaries. #his en&ry was pos&ed in Cinema, 7eminism, Women" Boo(mar( &he permalin("

23 thoughts on “The Final Girl, misogyny and the slasher film…” 8. Madam Miaow says2 November , 2008 a& 99:99 am

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he Final Girl, misogyny and the slasher film… | Harpymarx


Yes, there"s a lot of this stuD buried and it"s good to see you ma)ing it visible, !ouise. :nAoyed your analysis. Must dash but want to come bac) to this. "s (lanet Terror is by far the superior film in the rindhouse double bill. The heroine is a go4go dancer with a machine gun legL *"mon, it doesn"t get be1er than thatL ombie storyline. pm I Aust wanted to let you )now that your post is now up at the G5th *arnival of +eministsL More comments soon;I thought this analysis was really fascinating.
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+or example -&nd partly on a cynical level, what brings in the punters and how it relates to their lives but not that challenging rather it is in the acceptable boundaries. *an I get a what4what0 &s in, what in the world were you trying to say in this sentence0 #pare the lofty rhetoric of (hilosophy 868 and get to the substance. Your writing needs serious wor). , 2008 a& 92:22 am i #oirore, I have never heard of Teeth, have you got any further references to the b)0 a& :2? am "lo Ms. !ouise, My name is !iouxsie, and I"m pu1ing a boo) together addressing art, pornography, and censorship from a feminist perspective. I stumbled onto this site in researching the +inal irl phenomenon in slashers, and having read some of your articles, I wanted to extend an oDer2 if you"re interested, I"d be delighted to send by some uestions for an interview installment on -#las:<#, which pertains to gender in horrorPespecially slasherPfilms. I"d be fascinated to hear what you have to say. I can certainly send more information upon reuest. Than)s for your timeL C!iouxsie ee a& >:0 pm I have been accused of misogyny in my own, amateur, student and experimental films. Indeed, in some cases, I was aware of the criticism while writing and producing them. &s a gay man and a big4time horror3dar) film fan, I also see the Austification for such analysis in horror films. In my own films, I"m more exploring why gay men are often deemed misogynist than I am interested in being misogynist and that"s in some ways the point. #o, I found this blog while searching for subAect ma1er that I am legitimately interested in and also )now a thing or two about. +irst, I should tell you that some of the horror history, in this essay, is incorrect, while the analysis is very much valid and possibly publish4able. +or instance, the !aurie character in &!!F@::' never has sex, and the
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&!I:' is being referred to by her last name. er first is :llen. It would be very interesting to provide a more detailed analysis of &!I:', which is li)ely more of a #!&#:< in space, than a -aunted ouse in space. &!I:' is a very interesting film to analy>e from a feminist perspective in that it is so simple that it is perhaps easy for viewers to miss that the horror in the film very obviously deals so much with graphically distorting the more visceral aspects of the female anatomy and role in the life cycle. & great example of this is how easily it is overloo)ed that the computer that sabotages the crew is referred to as JMother." Indeed, it is often described a +reudian nightmare of childbirth. I would also greatly suggest that you refer to the very in9uential genre of Italian thrillers called the Jgiallo" for a few reasons that ma)e it relevant to your subAect ma1er. +irst, they are critically respected films, for their style and fashion4sense. #econd, because they are critici>ed for being very misogynistic $see +ulchi"s -T: ':@ YF a& >:98 am i !iouxsie, Than)s for that. I have your email and will contact you. !. a& 8:<< pm I have been accused of misogyny in my own, amateur, student and experimental films. Indeed, in some cases I was aware of the criticism while writing and producing them. &s a gay man and a big4time horror3dar) film fan, I also see the Austification for such analysis in horror films and while, in my own films I"m more exploring why gay men are often deemed misogynist $that"s in some ways the point%, I wanted to tell you that a lot of your horror history in this essay is incorrect, while your analysis 6 f9

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is very much valid and possibly publish4able. +or instance, the !aurie character in &!!F@::' never has sex, and the ed for being very misogynistic but at the same time in many cases the slasher or )iller in the film ends up being a woman. But lastly, and most4importantly, they are directly responsible for starting the body4count3slasher genre. #ee -The Bird with the *rystal (lumage and -Blood and Blac) !ace for excellent examples of why I recommended them to you. &s a side note, since you mentioned itchcoc), the director of many classic films in the Jgiallo" genre, Mario Bava is credited as the inventor of it as well. That first film the genre is said to have been created with Jbefore our very eyes" is 87GSs -The irl @hich ?new too Much. In which, director Mario Bava payed tribute to the plot of itchcoc)"s -The Man @ho ?new Too Much. This is perhaps very relevant to note when you consider itchcoc) made 87G6Ss -(sycho less than  years prior to Bava"s classic. a& :0< pm personally, I thin) the history of slaher films is realy connected underground film ma)ing. a lot of film ma)ers fall into horror because it a cheap genre with a loyal fixed audience. The slasher 9ic) ta)en at face value does seem anti4female, but these films were more about pu1ing gormless )ids in danger than anything else and the subtext of such movies relied on a cofrontation between values that the audience both shared and resented. +or example, the )illers in such movies tended to act in the deadening conformity of the suburbs or the oppressive atmosphere of colleges and summercamps. Interestingly, the Texas *hainsaw Massacre really was designed to depict the horrors of the meat industry. @riter3director Tobe ooper was and still is a vegetarian. g.d.s a& 99:<8 am
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the slasher genres noteriaty is actually technological.The early 8756s saw the rise of the H# homevideo system. This meant that traditional models of cenorship bro)e down. &t the same time in the # and in Britain you had very conservative governments whipping up fears about dangerous symptoms of social brea)down. In Britain most slasher4movies were banned until the mid 8776s. The slasher movie was a simply one example of a shift in teenage tastes in the early 56s. Their heyday E745 was also the heyday of ardcore (un), post4pun), anti4nuclear protests, disco, and all manor of youth4culture activity. in horror films, teenagers simply wanted something that was theirs. The more critic fre1ed the more appealing the films became. as a teenager in that era I wanted my own type of music, not some G6s crap handed4down to me by my parents. &nd i wanted my own horror films. #lasher films were despised by older people so they inevitably had a huge appeal to me. espite the charges generic stupidity they seemed fresh compared with a lot of the other films on oDer. To be honest I saw them as a bit of light relief between exams and watching classic art4house movies. a& 92:> am I li)e *arol *lover ideas about The +inal irl. &ll I was saying is that they are problematic, because slasher movies were so simple you could read them any number of ways. @hat I found interesting about slasher films was that thy had a primitive energy. The rules were so fixed and established so uic)ly they imposed a sort of artistic disapline on filma)ers. The best of the films often had themes and ideas that went beyond arguments about mysogyny or feminism. +or instance 'ightmare on :lms #treet is about dislocated realities and it first seuel is distinctly gay themed. & film li)e Bad Behavior fits into the slasher genre, but is actually about parents trying to perfect their children through brainwashing. & feminist reading is a valid overview the slasher genre, but the films at their best threw in all )inds of ideas. , 2090 a& 90:<> pm Ugdsmith2 Texas *hainsaw Massacre $female protagonist% was released before &lien, so don"t thin) that film demonstrates -& female protagnist meant that women were more li)ely to go and see these films. &lien had much higher production values than any slasher. &nd female protagonists go bac) much further to before the start of the slasher genre, IMF. Hal !ewton films the Eth Hictim, or I @al)ed @ith a Vombie for instance. It"s a general horror thing. -@hy for instance did slasher4movies set in summer4camps feature virtually no )ids below the age of sixteen years4old0 there"s no great mystery to this I"m afraid. #howing pre4teens" tits on screen, even in the E6s, leads to legal troubles and lower box o/ce ta)e. !i)e the idea of slasher as class vengeance. oesn"t it Aust come down to power tools but0 *an"t thin) of any villains with fountain pens.
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K. noone says2 March 99, 209 a& >:92 pm The reality of slasher films is that they are a supply and demand item. There are lots of misogynistic men $and some women% out there who want to see women suDer, get raped, and murdered, simply because they :'=FY watching that. That is the brutal, disturbing truth. It really is torture porn. @orld wide the male gender is the dominant gender and subseuently it"s mainly men have most control in ollywood etc. #o the Jsic)" men ma)e the films they want to see. as there ever been a mainstream ollywood film that focusses on the victims of a serial )iller $and their friends, families etc%0 The answer is a clear Jno". I would love to see a film that turns the whole ugly genre on its head and sees things from the victim"s point of view, without being exploitative. It ma)es me angry, dismayed and depressed that modern @orld culture endorses the subAect of rape, torture, murder as an F? subAect for entertainment. (ersonally, I feel it"s time to get angry and say :'F I# :'F. #eeing beautiful, semi na)ed women stal)ed, chased, raped, tortured, hac)ed to pieces and )illed over and over again in countless films is a form *!T<&! MY#FY'I#TI* I'TIMI&TIF' F+ @FM:'. If you agree with my views, then spea) out and be heard.
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